POMPTON LAKES — The state will intensify its review of cancer in town, spurred on by resident claims that disease is rife beyond a polluted neighborhood afflicted with higher-than-normal rates of two cancers.

Less than 24 hours after hearing impassioned pleas for help from cancer victims and their relatives in the so-called “plume” neighborhood of about 450 homes, the state Health Department on Wednesday said it will expand a recent analysis of cancer rates in the community.

It also will create an advisory committee of residents to develop a plan to tackle the borough’s health concerns as DuPont combats a plume of toxic-laden groundwater that migrated from its former munitions plant.

The Health Department said it additionally will work with federal and state agencies to answer questions residents raised at a public meeting Tuesday. The answers will be posted on the department’s Web site by early next week, said Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner.

The department will develop a community advisory group to discuss details of the expanded cancer and health analysis early in 2010, and will soon work out membership details with local officials and the residents’ advocacy group Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes, Leusner said. Besides the underground contamination, DuPont has in the past dealt with massive surface contamination in the Acid Brook area and is preparing to deal with toxic sediments at the brook’s entrance into Pompton Lake.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, will look into concerns raised by residents about venting systems installed for free by DuPont in many neighborhood homes to remove toxic vapors of the solvents TCE and PCE that may be rising into basements from the plume of contaminated groundwater. Residents have questioned the effectiveness of the systems and whether they are being installed properly.

“We’ll look at the systems and the adequacy of the systems,” said Mary Mears, spokeswoman for the EPA’s Region 2, which covers New Jersey.

The EPA is not yet ready to make a decision to accept or reject the requests of the concerned citizens’ group to get the Pompton Lakes neighborhood listed on the federal Superfund list. Residents of the Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes had argued that federal EPA oversight of the groundwater cleanup rather than state Department of Environmental Protection oversight would lead to better results and put more pressure on DuPont to speed cleanup.

While the state DEP maintains primary oversight of cleanup efforts, the site is already monitored by the EPA under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA.

“Having the site listed under the EPA Superfund program would dramatically change the basic structure of oversight and accountability, and public input would be a key part of that,” said Bob Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, which is working with the citizens’ group. “Under the EPA the public would be able to comment on every aspect of cleanup, which is critical because right now under the DEP and DuPont, they have zero say in the process. It’s unfortunate but right now DuPont is calling the shots.”

Spiegel said he has spoken with EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck, as well as staff with both Governor Jon Corzine and Governor-elect Chris Christie, and talks with EPA and DEP officials are planned for coming weeks.

Mears said the EPA will evaluate the concerns and has not ruled out the Superfund request, but added, “We feel the site is getting cleaned up. We think we can do all the cleanup under RCRA. The kinds of technology being used at the site currently would not likely be any different if it became a Superfund site. There are different manufacturers of these venting systems, but this is the same kind of technology used at Superfund and RCRA sites across the country. Vapor intrusion is not an uncommon problem at these sites, and there are technological solutions to it.”

The EPA and DEP also await the results of a new study that will evaluate further options for cleaning up the plume of contaminated groundwater. The study is expected sometime later this winter, said the EPA’s Mears.

The flurry of activity over the Pompton Lakes contamination comes a week after the state Health Department issued a study showing elevated rates of certain cancers in the neighborhood above the groundwater plume. The report, which covered the period from 1979 to 2006, found elevated rates of kidney cancer among women and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men. The report could not conclusively link the cancers to the solvents PCE and TCE that are contaminating the groundwater, but did note that these chemicals have been linked to such cancers in the past.

An analysis of the state study conducted for the citizens’ group by Chapin Engineering noted that while women in the study area represent only 8 percent for the borough population, they experienced 50 percent of expected kidney cancer cases for the entire borough. And while the neighborhood’s men represented 7 percent of the borough population, they experienced 41 percent of the non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the borough.

The solvents polluting the groundwater had been used at a DuPont munitions factory in the north end of the borough, which operated from the late 1800s until it was closed in 1994.

DuPont has installed a pump-and-treat system at its facility to keep the contaminated groundwater from spreading, but the cleanup has been complicated because the contamination has been detected in the southeast corner of the DuPont facility as deep as 100 feet, said DuPont spokesman Robert C. Nelson.

Wells sampled at the property line in the Wanaque River Valley manufacturing area to the northwest of the contaminated neighborhood have not detected volatile organic compounds, and site records indicate these compounds were not used in that area, Nelson said.

Nelson said DuPont is working with experts at several universities to study groundwater cleanup methods such as chemical oxidation and biotreatment, and plans to send the DEP an evaluation of the technologies by the end of the year. Early next year, DuPont will conduct field tests and gather information for some pilot tests of cleanup technologies in the plume area, Nelson said.

POMPTON LAKES — The state will intensify its review of cancer in town, spurred on by resident claims that disease is rife beyond a polluted neighborhood afflicted with higher-than-normal rates of two cancers.

Less than 24 hours after hearing impassioned pleas for help from cancer victims and their relatives in the so-called “plume” neighborhood of about 450 homes, the state Health Department on Wednesday said it will expand a recent analysis of cancer rates in the community.

It also will create an advisory committee of residents to develop a plan to tackle the borough’s health concerns as DuPont combats a plume of toxic-laden groundwater that migrated from its former munitions plant.

The Health Department said it additionally will work with federal and state agencies to answer questions residents raised at a public meeting Tuesday. The answers will be posted on the department’s Web site by early next week, said Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner.

The department will develop a community advisory group to discuss details of the expanded cancer and health analysis early in 2010, and will soon work out membership details with local officials and the residents’ advocacy group Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes, Leusner said. Besides the underground contamination, DuPont has in the past dealt with massive surface contamination in the Acid Brook area and is preparing to deal with toxic sediments at the brook’s entrance into Pompton Lake.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, will look into concerns raised by residents about venting systems installed for free by DuPont in many neighborhood homes to remove toxic vapors of the solvents TCE and PCE that may be rising into basements from the plume of contaminated groundwater. Residents have questioned the effectiveness of the systems and whether they are being installed properly.

“We’ll look at the systems and the adequacy of the systems,” said Mary Mears, spokeswoman for the EPA’s Region 2, which covers New Jersey.

The EPA is not yet ready to make a decision to accept or reject the requests of the concerned citizens’ group to get the Pompton Lakes neighborhood listed on the federal Superfund list. Residents of the Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes had argued that federal EPA oversight of the groundwater cleanup rather than state Department of Environmental Protection oversight would lead to better results and put more pressure on DuPont to speed cleanup.

While the state DEP maintains primary oversight of cleanup efforts, the site is already monitored by the EPA under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA.

“Having the site listed under the EPA Superfund program would dramatically change the basic structure of oversight and accountability, and public input would be a key part of that,” said Bob Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, which is working with the citizens’ group. “Under the EPA the public would be able to comment on every aspect of cleanup, which is critical because right now under the DEP and DuPont, they have zero say in the process. It’s unfortunate but right now DuPont is calling the shots.”

Spiegel said he has spoken with EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck, as well as staff with both Governor Jon Corzine and Governor-elect Chris Christie, and talks with EPA and DEP officials are planned for coming weeks.

Mears said the EPA will evaluate the concerns and has not ruled out the Superfund request, but added, “We feel the site is getting cleaned up. We think we can do all the cleanup under RCRA. The kinds of technology being used at the site currently would not likely be any different if it became a Superfund site. There are different manufacturers of these venting systems, but this is the same kind of technology used at Superfund and RCRA sites across the country. Vapor intrusion is not an uncommon problem at these sites, and there are technological solutions to it.”

The EPA and DEP also await the results of a new study that will evaluate further options for cleaning up the plume of contaminated groundwater. The study is expected sometime later this winter, said the EPA’s Mears.

The flurry of activity over the Pompton Lakes contamination comes a week after the state Health Department issued a study showing elevated rates of certain cancers in the neighborhood above the groundwater plume. The report, which covered the period from 1979 to 2006, found elevated rates of kidney cancer among women and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men. The report could not conclusively link the cancers to the solvents PCE and TCE that are contaminating the groundwater, but did note that these chemicals have been linked to such cancers in the past.

An analysis of the state study conducted for the citizens’ group by Chapin Engineering noted that while women in the study area represent only 8 percent for the borough population, they experienced 50 percent of expected kidney cancer cases for the entire borough. And while the neighborhood’s men represented 7 percent of the borough population, they experienced 41 percent of the non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the borough.

The solvents polluting the groundwater had been used at a DuPont munitions factory in the north end of the borough, which operated from the late 1800s until it was closed in 1994.

DuPont has installed a pump-and-treat system at its facility to keep the contaminated groundwater from spreading, but the cleanup has been complicated because the contamination has been detected in the southeast corner of the DuPont facility as deep as 100 feet, said DuPont spokesman Robert C. Nelson.

Wells sampled at the property line in the Wanaque River Valley manufacturing area to the northwest of the contaminated neighborhood have not detected volatile organic compounds, and site records indicate these compounds were not used in that area, Nelson said.

Nelson said DuPont is working with experts at several universities to study groundwater cleanup methods such as chemical oxidation and biotreatment, and plans to send the DEP an evaluation of the technologies by the end of the year. Early next year, DuPont will conduct field tests and gather information for some pilot tests of cleanup technologies in the plume area, Nelson said.